The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-07-14
MOU NTAIN ROBBERS,
Their bloody Dceds--Travolers Who Have
Disappeared.


In Putnam county, Tennessee, before
the war, for seventy five years, a road
within three miles of Cookovilc, leading
from Louisville, Kentucky, through
down into Georgia and South Carolina,
was known as the Kentucky stock road,
and was at that time the principal high
way for traders between the two sections.
Planters, slave dealers and stock men
would drive their negroes, mules, etc,
down to the southern market, returning
with the money from their sale.
Such particles were frequently missing
very mysteriously, no trace of them ever
being found. The road ran through a
wild, thinly settled mountain country.
The stopping places, or dwellings, where
a traveller could get shelter, frequently
were thirty or forty miles apart, and as
recent Investigations show, were kept by
robbers and mrdcrers of the worst de-
scrlptlOn, who for years followed this
business of wholesale robbery and mur-
der. About thirty years ago man, who
is now citizen of Cooke, found a skcle-
ton at the entrance to cave, but no fur
thcr investigation was ever made until
a couple of years ago, and it was left for
a stranger to make discoveries that cast
III the shade all stories of like descrip-
ton, where the writer finds his terrible
characters only in his own brain.
party was organized under the lead
Grship of Mr.. Ferd Kincaid to explore
the cave where the skeleton was found
thirty years ago. Back on the mountain
side about onc-half milo from one of
the notorious stopping places described,
the entrance to the cave was formed. A
holo, something like we'll, going
straight down thirty-fivc feet, was first
passed through, and then the cave opens
into large cavcrns, with q downward
course under the mountain. At the bot
tom of the shaft the party found human
bones md with little digging in the
debris nat had accumulated ut this
point, tnearthcd about sixty skeletons
Of men who have been murdered and
thrown down this hole. Some skulls
wore found with bullet holes through
them, others being mashed with an axe
or instrument of that Kind.
Old citizens now living in this vicinity
say that the keepers of these dcns would
keep track OF the travellers when they
passed through with stock, and on their
return they would be almost certain to
disappear. The robbers were even so
bold they would take the clothing and
saddles and horses of their victims and
use them publicly. They would get a
man drunk, if possible, and, as whiskcy
was plentiful and the custom Of drinking
common, it was no hard mattor to do,
then in their drunken stupor kill, rob
and throw their bodies in the hole, and
without doubt many mon, as this fearful
disclosure proves, never returned to their
homes, and anxious friends waited and
watched and wondered why they re-
turned not.
Not far off, by the side of tho road
still stands a house. Tho walls of one
room are stained and spotted with humar
blood. Above, in the mountains, about
twenty miles, was still worse place, if
possible, than this. Another case is
there, and would, if investigated, repeat
the sickening story. The people are
much excited over this discovery, as
many descendants of this robber gang
are still living all through Putnam coun'
ty. But "dead men tell no tales" and
the history Of these fearful crimes will
never be known.
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The "FaVOritc Presentation" of nr